A review by wingedvictories
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

4.75

This series reputation preceded it-I had heard that Book of The New Sun was challenging and often difficult to parse. After completing Shadow, I felt I had a grasp on what was going on-until seeing discussion of it online! This isn’t a detractor however. This series encourages its readers to look closely and make the connections it’s not making for you. In many ways BOTNS teaches you how to read BOTNS.  

The first installment is a lot of set up for things that may not be payed off until much later. This series works best as a complete work.